ETHIOPIAN PLANS TO INCREASE THE PRESENT DAILY FLIGHTS TO WASHINGTON DC TO TEN AND SHIFT FROM LOS ANGELES TO HOUSTON
(Posted 27th January 2019)
‘Houston do you read‘ comes to mind as information is emerging that from the summer of 2019, Ethiopian Airlines will discontinue their flights to Los Angeles – for now – and instead commence a three times a week direct service to Houston, Texas. It is understood that the flights will route via a West African gateway yet to be announced.
Meanwhile has the airline also confirmed that they will up their flights from Addis Ababa to Washington DC, the US capital city, from the present daily service to 10 flights a week. The extra three flights will route from Addis via Abidjan.
Three of the daily flights to New York will route from Addis via Abidjan to JFK while the remaining four flights will route via Lome to Newark.
Chicago too will see more flights as the airline is preparing to up the frequencies to the ‘Windy City‘ from the present three to five a week.
With now 119 destinations served and a fleet of more than 100 aircraft in service, including the state of the art Airbus A350XWB, has Ethiopian Airlines over the years proven that the airline business in Africa does not have to be a massive lossmaker, unlike South African Airways or neighbours Kenya Airways, but that with smart forward planning and the willingness to cut lossmaking routes at an early stage, big profits can be achieved.
https://atcnews.org/2019/01/27/big-day-for-ethiopias-aviation-and-hospitality-industry/
Only today is the new airport terminal in Addis Ababa being officially opened bringing the airport’s capacity to 22 million passengers per year – again unlike in Nairobi where plans for a major expansion were stopped dead in its tracks – Project Greenfield was halted under controversial circumstances – giving the airline a further competitive advantage over their closest rivals, both in numbers of passengers and in terms of location.
Ethiopian Airlines is today also formally launching their entry into the hospitality business, owing a new 373 rooms hotel, the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel before breaking ground for an even larger unit later this year.
Ethiopian’s flight academy and maintenance business too have for long been continental leaders in their field.
Ethiopian Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, in Africa alongside Egypt Air and South African Airways and offers non African Star Alliance members code share flights to Addis Ababa and beyond to a wide range of African destinations across the continent.
Notably has information emerged that distant rival Kenya Airways is pondering to leave the Sky Team Alliance, being the only airline member of this global group – whether for cost or other reasons couldn’t be established – in order to apparently pursue other business models, a development which has aviation pundits once more shake their heads over the way the top floor at Embakasi is looking at the airline’s future.
